Junior explorer Supreme Metals (TSXV: ABJ) has identified a large magnetic anomaly on its Bloom Lake East property in Labrador, about 2.5 km to the east of Champion Iron Mines’ (TSX: CIA) flagship Bloom Lake open-pit mine and mill near Fermont in Quebec.
The 2.5 km long magnetic anomaly, defined in a recent magnetometer survey done by drone, is about 15 km from the Wabush mines of Iron Ore Company of Canada and managed by Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LON: RIO). The survey produced 462 line kilometres of data. A grab sample taken from Nip Lake in 1979 returned 59.9% soluble iron
The triangular shaped anomaly that covers an area of 2.5 by 2.5 by 1.5 km, contains the Nip Lake West Occurrence, a stratabound Superior-type iron formation the company already knew existed. A grab sample taken from Nip Lake in 1979 returned 59.9% soluble iron (Sol fe).
“We assumed it [Nip Lake] was a small body and didn’t know much about it,” Bob Komarechka, the company’s CEO and a geologist, told The Northern Miner.
“It’s an area known for iron formations but we were quite surprised we had such a large anomaly so close to a mine site,” hesays. “It’s been folded over onto itself but what the grade is of those bands I don’t know, so it’s speculative at this point to say we have ore, but it’s definitely an anomaly that should be followed up on and may have significance.”
Previous work in the area was not very definitive so Komarechka decided to do a magnetometer survey because he was also interested in gabbros and potential cobalt on the property.
Indeed, it was the property’s cobalt potential that initially prompted Supreme Metals to acquire 84 claims (2,100 hectares) in Bloom Lake East in February 2017. Since finding the anomaly about a week ago, the company has added another 21 claims (525 hectares) for a total of 2,625 hectares of ground.
The cheapest way to evaluate the property for any gabbroitic cobalt bodies and iron formation was by drone, he says, because you don’t have to cut lines and you can get high-resolution data from 50 metres above surface. The only challenging part of the survey, he recalls, were the 25 km winds that would hold up the drone from time to time.
At this point the company will continue to explore the anomaly as well as look for gabborites containing cobalt. “We don’t have enough information on cobalt at the moment but we do have a significant magnetic anomaly and the occurrence on an iron property suggests the potential for something of significance,” he says.
The Bloom Lake East property was previously owned by Iron Ore Company of Canada, a joint-venture between Rio Tinto with 58.7%, Mitsubishi with 26.2% and Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Corp. with 15.1%.
This article originally appeared in The Northern Miner.
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